The Spectacular Now

This is extremely long overdue. It turns out the first semester in the second year of an MA is insane. Anyways, I've handed in a paper, and am ignoring the pile of analyses I have to grade so that I can write a review. First up: The Spectacular Now.

This late summer romance is directed by James Ponsoldt. I remember reading a review of it which stated that it was our generation's answer to Say Anything. I knew then that I had to see it, and I was not disappointed. The film follows Sutter (Miles Teller), a charming high school student who refuses to plan for the future and prefers to live in the now. He meets Aimee (Shailene Woodley), a sweet, hard working student with a challenging home life, and sparks, as they say,  fly.

What I really enjoyed about this film was the natural down to earth performances by Teller and Woodley. It's been over ten years since I graduated high school but watching the film took me back to the real-life experiences of being a teenager. Rather than piling on make-up and putting her in flashy clothes, Woodley's Aimee is allowed to look like a regular teenager. Her character isn't an over-the-top representation of teenage angst, or an overtly emotional look at the challenging life of a teen from a broken home. We never even see her Mom, we only hear her yelling off screen at one point. Instead, the film focusses on two characters who are drawn together and are navigating a young relationship in the midst of the unavoidable internal growth that comes with that age. I also really appreciated that the film looked at the role alcohol plays in the lives of some teens. Most teen films depict alcohol binges at parties. But what about the teenagers that drink at home alone, have a dependency on it? This is not a story told often, so it was refreshing to see it depicted.

The film takes its time, but doesn't over stay its welcome. At 95 minutes in length it tells you all you need to know, and leaves enough open at the end for you not to feel as though you've been spoon-fed the story. A great film for the majority.

It is the End

It's the end of summer and the end of Summer movie season. This year was a disappointment to say the least. I would usually be at the cinemas at least once a week during summer, this year I've gone only a handful of times. From bad marketing to terrible reviews (and I don't just mean critics) the line up this year was lackluster. Early in the season we had Iron Man 3 (Review Here), Star Trek (Review Here) and Man of Steel (Review Here), all films that did well in the box-office, though the latter was not loved by critics. I enjoyed each of these films and it got me excited for the rest of the season. But then there came Pacific Rim (Review Here), a highly anticipated film that had none of del Toro's previous cinematic charm. The summer started with a bang and fizzled out before we even had a chance to realize it was upon us.

And here we find ourselves at the end. So it's only fitting that I finish my summer reviews with two films about the end: This is the End (Dir. Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen) and The World's End (Dir. Edgar Wright).

This is the End is a comedy starring the familiar faces of Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill and Danny McBride, to name a few. The synopsis is simple enough: the world has come to an end, most of humanity has been taken up to the sky and a group of humans still remain, fighting to survive and figure out what happened. Where it gets interesting is that each of the actors keeps their name and their public persona. They play hyperbolic versions of themselves, the them they assume we the public think they are.

The film has some hilarious moments. The scenes at James Franco's party are ridiculous in a good way. There are so many famous faces doing all the sorts of things you think would happen at a James Franco party, and more than a few that will surprise you. The relationship between the group of survivors is both endearing and highly dysfunctional. Danny McBride's character is a wonderful antagonist and provides some great opportunities for the other actors to play against him. Those familiar with the actors' previous work will enjoy the many digs made at past projects, as well as some nostalgia.

My critique of the film would be that it's a bit too long near the end. Not too much so that it takes away from the film, but enough that when you finish watching it you realize it could easily have been 20 minutes shorter. I also would have liked more female representation in the film. Previews made it seem that Emma Watson would have a larger role, unfortunately hers is short albeit sweet and sassy.

Overall I recommend this film for the ridiculous factor. It's full of crude jokes and likes to takes things too far at times, but the relationship between the characters ties the film together making it an enjoyable watch.

The World's End is the third film from the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg duo who brought you Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. The film stars Simon Pegg as Gary King, a drug addict who hasn't been able to let go of his high school glory, nor his desire to finish the epic pub crawl he and a group of friends attempted in their hometown twenty years earlier. Using charm and manipulation he manages to bring them all back together for one more try. Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan and Paddy Considine star as Gary's former friends who don't like him very much anymore. As the pub crawl goes on, they begin to realize that something is wrong with the town, and they are forced to fight for their survival while trying to get to the final pub, The World's End.

I had expected to enjoy this film more than This is the End having seen and loved Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Unfortunately this film tried too hard to bring the humour from the previous films to the extent that it just recycled all the old jokes. Pegg's Gary was an unlikeable character who didn't really have much of an arc. The relationship between the five main characters lacked any charisma so that by the time they get to liking each other again it was too late. Rosemund Pike's Sam Chamberlain provided the one and only female of the group. She got to hold her own in a bar fight but, like Emma Watson in This is the End, seemed like an add-on character. There were some funny moments but all in all it felt like a movie we'd seen before with nothing new added.

I have to add here that the film got a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes so I am officially throwing my hands up and surrendering to the summer. When Man of Steel gets at 56% rating and this film a 90% I know for sure that the world has completely lost it.

Goodbye summer films, I wish I could say it's been fun...

Pacific Rim

It's been five years since Guillermo del Toro's last film, Hellboy II. Since then we've waited with anticipation to see if he could recreate the magic he did with the dark and mesmerizing 2006 Pan's Labyrinth. This year we got our chance with Pacific Rim, one of 2013's blockbusters directed by del Toro. I can sum the plot of this film up for you in one sentence: after aliens attack earth, humans create giant robots to fight back. See, easy. The difficulty would lie in finding something beyond this in the plot.

The film has everything an epic robot action film needs: robots, an enemy to fight, kick-ass heroes and excellent visual effects. What it lacks however is an original story, character development, realistic dialogue and the desire for a sequel. 

Let's start with the story. There really is nothing new or interesting here. The film is basically about aliens attacking earth (seen that before), humans working with giant robots (Michael Bay's got that sorted) and trying to save the earth (I wonder if they'll succeed?). It's not that I don't expect plot points to be borrowed across the board, it's just that I expect a new spin on them. I went into the film expecting something interesting, fresh, different, because that's what critics have been writing about it. I was disappointed to find a film that didn't offer anything new, and instead missed out on some opportunities to flesh the story out and create intrigue and suspense. 

The film's biggest flaw lies in its lack of character development. Charlie Hunnam's Raleigh Beckett and Rinko Kikuchi's Mako Mori have very simple back stories that give us some kind of insight into their personalities but not enough to create a link between the audience and their protagonists. At some point near the end of the film I wasn't sure whether or not our heroes would make it, and I realized that I didn't really care. I never really got to know them. Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost was probably the most intriguing character, but this had more to do with Elba's talents as an actor than with his role in the story. There are two actors in the film playing father and son duo Herc and Chuck Hansen. Max Martini is from The US, and Robert Kazinski is from England. Both play Australians. I have no problem with actors playing characters from different countries, but please, please make sure you get the accent right.

That brings me onto the dialogue. The film goes out of its way to not be a typical American blockbuster and then it falls into its own trap. There is of course the classic line "today we're canceling the Apocalypse," as seen in the trailer, and unfortunately it doesn't stop there. One of the reasons we don't get character development is because 90% of the dialogue is exposition, making it impossible to move beyond the very linear structure of the plot. 

The marketing campaign of this film has to be one of the worst I've seen in a long time. The trailers offered nothing about characters, relying on the robots and special effects to be the selling point. It didn't work. The marketing team ended up having to release a final trailer that showed the characters more. Except it didn't really add anything. As I watched the film I realized that it's because there was nothing to add. What you see in the trailer is what you get. 

I can't end on a bad note though. As disappointing as the film is there are some positives. The visual effects are incredible, visually it's a stunning film. The varying ethnicities amongst the characters is refreshing for a blockbuster, even though some of the accents are a little suspect. And then there's the...the, okay I'm out of ideas. It's got giant robots though and it seems, for some, that's all a film needs. 

Man of Steel

I'm going to go out on a limb here and declare this as the best film of the summer. I may even go further and declare this the best superhero film I've seen. This may come as a surprise because critics have not been kind to this film. It currently has a 56% splatter rate on rotten tomatoes, but an 8.1/10 on imdb, which goes to show that critics have completely lost their footing in reality.

One of the main complaints from critics is that the film lacks joy and humour. Man of Steel is directed by Zac Snyder and produced by Chris Nolan, director of the Dark Knight trilogy. Does anyone remember laughing in the Dark Knight films? I don't. And yet no one complained about the lack of humour in those dark films. I think what's happening is that critics have become so used to Marvel's take on superhero films they have come to expect the same from others. In the Marvel universe there is more colour, more humour, more opportunity for some light-hearted banter. With DC things are a little darker, more bleak. Batman's struggles were always as internal as they were external. We had to watch him fall before we could watch him rise. 

In Man of Steel Clark (Henry Cavill) is struggling to align the two sides of himself. He is both alien and human, alien in the sense that he is not of this world, but human in his morality, his connection to the Earth. He is however an outsider, always has been. He uses his abilities to help those in peril, but does so anonymously, hiding his true self in fear of how people will react. Clark may be practically indestructible but he has one very human desire: to be accepted. 

The film is not told in a linear form, rather it goes between present and past, creating an in-depth look at how Clark came to be the man he is today. Like the Dark Knight trilogy, it allows the audience some breathing space, doesn't throw in a lot of exposition and instead lets the story flow in its own way. This means that some questions pondered earlier in the film aren't answered until later, keeping audiences engaged. It sounds like a simple thing, but so few films do this, giving too much away too soon.

Cavill is perfect as Clark. He embodies the man of steel and brings a vulnerability to the role. Amy Adams is refreshing as Lois Lane. She is not overly sexualized and is allowed room to be a character and not just someone the hero has to save. Michael Shannon is at first a little overwhelming as General Zod, but it soon becomes natural to the character. He sure does love to yell a lot. Russell Crowe has a bigger role as Jor-El than I anticipated, and this is a good thing. Kevin Costner is well cast in the role of Jonathan Kent, showing both the fear and pride he feels for his son. 

The score is done by Hans Zimmer and deserves its own review because it's fantastic. With the epic fight scenes throughout the film the score adds tension and emotion, particularly in one scene near the end where, between you and me, there may have been some tears in my eyes. 

I really can't express enough how much you need to a) ignore the negative reviews and b) go see this film. As much as I love the Marvel films, I would be more than happy if superhero films of the future were to become more like Man of Steel. The beauty is that we can have both: the joy and humour of Marvel and the darker journeys of DC characters. It's a big bad universe out there, and there's plenty of room for all. 

Star Trek Into Darkness

You've done it again J.J Abrams.

I remember seeing, and being blown away by the 2009 Star Trek film. It was such a fun, fast-paced adventure ride. Years went by and no sequel appeared, which in Hollywood is a bit of an anomaly. Most of the time sequels are completely unwanted and unwelcome. For Star Trek however it felt like a void, a black hole, that perhaps it had been lost in a warp speed gone wrong. Four years later however Abrams gave us what we all wanted. The long awaited sequel: Star Trek Into Darkness.

The film practically picks up where we left off. Captain James Kirk (Chris Pine) and his crew are aboard the Enterprise, boldly going where they probably shouldn't. The film starts off in the middle of a rescue mission gone wrong. Spock (Zachary Quinto) is in danger. Kirk refuses to let his friend die. And so the Enterprise goes against regulations in order to save him. This doesn't go down well with their superior Pike (Bruce Greenwood). Kirk loses the Enterprise and Spock is transferred to another ship. However the arrival of John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) spins everything out of control, and before long Kirk and Spock are back where they belong, on the Enterprise, chasing the enigmatic Harrison.

The big *spoiler* of course is that Harrison is actually the great nemesis Khan. He is smarter, faster, stronger, and extremely difficult to defeat. He has little care for humans and wants the return of his own people. Cumberbatch does a fantastic job in this role. Propelled into stardom from his work in BBC's Sherlock, Cumberbatch has proven himself to be a talented, engaging and charismatic actor.

The most important relationship in Star Trek is of course the bromance between Kirk and Spock. It is arguably the best bromance in film and TV (with Sherlock and Watson a close second). Both Pine and Quinto play their characters with such ease; the chemistry is natural and undeniable, leading one to wonder the types of fan fiction circling around the webesphere. Fans of the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan will notice that an important scene in the film is reworked in Into Darkness putting Kirk is Spock's place.

What I really enjoy about this film is the way it follows on from the 2009 one. You could watch them back to back and it would feel like one epic film. Abrams stays true to the characters, allowing the space for connections to be made, whilst also sending the audience on a 132 minute thrill ride. We may have had to wait four years for this sequel, but it was well worth the wait. Let's just hope the next one comes sooner.

Iron Man 3

I saw Iron Man 3 twice within 24 hours. This is because a) I really liked it and b) I needed to see it one more time to figure out that I liked it. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it the first time around it's just that, like so many others, I had high expectations and I wasn't sure whether it reached those expectations.

The film is explosive in many ways, and subtle in others. It far surpasses the weaker Iron Man 2, but I don't think I could say that it's better than the first one. Jon Favreau's 2008 hit felt as though it came out of nowhere and for that reason it set the bar for every other Marvel film that followed. Shane Black's take on Iron Man is a little darker. We find Tony Stark where we last left him in The Avengers, although this time there's less cheek and more internal struggle. After his near-fatal return to Earth in the 2012 blockbuster, Stark finds himself suffering from PTSD. Unable to sleep he spends his nights tinkering with his 'toys', building numerous iron man suits and worrying his now live-in girlfriend Pepper Potts. When a villain by the name of The Mandarin poses a threat to America, and Stark himself, he has no choice but to react. What ensues is a lot of action, some great twists and turns, and a chance for Stark to find himself amongst the rubble.

One of the reasons I wasn't sure how I first felt about the film had to do with the fact that Stark is not in the Iron Man suit often in the film. The story follows Stark more than it does Iron Man, and although I wasn't expecting this, I ended up enjoying this aspect. With two other Iron Man films and an Avengers film we've seen Iron Man in many different capacities. It is actually refreshing to see Stark deal with some of his issues outside of the suit.

Rumour has it that Robert Downey Jr. won't return as Iron Man in an Iron Man film. Fear not though, there are more Avengers films to come and he'll most likely be in those. I can't imagine anyone else playing Tony Stark, the role seems to be made for him, and he certainly made the role.

Underrated Television: The three shows you should be watching, but probably aren't

Sons of Anarchy (Kurt Sutter, 2005-present)

I say this without any reservation. Kurt Sutter's Sons of Anarchy is the best television show I have ever watched. I cannot believe I only just discovered it this year when it's been on the air since 2005. This is without a doubt the most underrated television show.
IMDb states that the premise as: "A man in his early 30s struggles to find a balance in his life between being a new dad and his involvement in a motorcycle club." This doesn't really do the show any justice though. Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) is vice-president to the motorcycle club the Sons of Anarchy. They are much more than mere motorcycle enthusiasts however, with their arms reaching into guns, drugs, Mexican cartels and the IRA. His step-father, Clay Morrow (Ron Pearlman) is the club's President, and although things start out well between Clay and Jax, they quickly unravel after Jax discovers a manifest written by his late father John, who had a different vision for the club. Jax's life is further complicated by his drug addicted ex-wife, premature son Abel, and the return of his high school girlfriend and true love Tara (Maggie Siff), who is now a doctor. 
Although Jax is arguably the show's main character, the others are not left by the wayside. Each character is explored throughout the series. Gemma is played by the highly talented Katy Sagal, who is married to Kurt Sutter. She is both mother to Jax and matriarch to the club. 
Throughout the five seasons each character is tested and no one is the same once we reach the end of season five. I was able to watch all the seasons back to back, but now I, like so many fans, eagerly await the next season. One thing is for sure, on this show anything can happen.  

Justified (2010-present)

Like Sons of Anarchy, Justified plays on the FX channel. And like Sons of Anarchy it is highly underrated.
IMDb lists the premise as: "Old-school U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is reassigned from Miami to his childhood home in the poor, rural coal-mining towns in Eastern Kentucky." To add to this, Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) is a skilled Marshall who dresses like a cowboy, is a quick draw, and has no qualms with shooting people. His Miami boss doesn't take too well to Raylan shooting a felon at an upmarket Miami restaurant during lunch. As punishment he sends Raylan back to Kentucky where he works the small towns, including his own hometown, the notorious Harlan County. Raylan reconnects with people from his past including his criminal father, his ex-wife Winona, and an old coal-mining buddy Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), who is Harlan's most charismatic outlaw. 
The show is currently in it's fourth season. Each season brings a different criminal source to Harlan that Raylan has to deal with. However the one constant is always Boyd. Raylan and Boyd have an interesting relationship. There are times when it's been Boyd that Raylan's hunting, but for the most part Boyd is a source for Raylan, although there's no love lost between the two men. 
The character of Boyd was originally going to be killed off in season one, however it quickly became apparent that he was an asset to the show. I can't imagine Justified without Boyd, it'd be like taking away Raylan's gun. 

Elementary (Robert Doherty, 2012-present)

Elementary is Sherlock Holmes with a twist. In this American adaptation Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) is a drug addict who has had to leave London and now resides in New York. He works with the local Police Dept., cracking complex cases the only way Sherlock knows how, with frightening intelligence, lack of modesty and limited social skills. The big twist however is that the famous Watson is a woman, played by Lucy Liu, who also happens to be Sherlock's sober companion.
If you think that having Watson played by a woman means a Sherlock/Watson romantic relationship you'd be wrong. The writer's are very careful to keep their relationship platonic. I'm not sure if they'll be able to continue doing this down the road, but so far there is no chemistry between the two.
I was hesitant to start watching this show because I'm not normally a fan of American adaptations of British shows. However, after finishing the two seasons of Sherlock (2010-present, which, if you haven't seen you need to) I was in the mood for some more Sherlock in my life. Miller is very aware of the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock is loved by many fans worldwide, and he has taken care not to mimic him in any way. This Sherlock is not as socially awkward, is more sexual, and has been pulled down a peg or two by his addiction. He's definitely more relatable. It's a really interesting show and so far the relationship between Sherlock and Watson is being explored in a unique way.

So there you have it, three shows that you probably aren't watching but really need to. There's so much crap on television today (cough cough anything with Kim Kardashian cough) and it's a shame that great shows are ignored. One way that can change is by word of mouth. If you find a great show, tell everyone about it. Make sure your favourite shows don't follow so many other greats to the TV cemetery.

Zero Dark Thirty

In posts long overdue I present to you Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty

This film came with a lot of hype, and considering its premise is based around the hunt for Osama Bin Laden that's not a surprise. The main complaint was the use of torture scenes in the film's first half hour. We see our protagonist Maya (Jessica Chastain) arrive at a detainee centre in Pakistan where she watches Dan (Jason Clarke) use waterboarding, depravation and humiliation in his interrogation of a detainee with ties to Saudi terrorists. Was it difficult to watch? Absolutely. Was it a shock to consider that the US used torture during their hunt for Bin Laden? Definitely not.

Bigelow, who is so far the first and only woman to win an Academy Award for best director (don't even get me started), returns from the high of The Hurt Locker with this dark, compelling story about Maya, a CIA agent who spent ten years focussed on tracking and killing Bin Laden. The film starts off on a dark note with torture, then takes it's time to slowly unravel the frustration, the lies, the losses and gains as Maya tracks America's most wanted man. There were a few scenes in the middle, particularly the ones featuring CIA agent Jennifer, that seemed a little unnecessary (I'm still not certain why she was baking a cake), but overall the film had a great pace and kept the focus where it needed to be, on Maya.

Chastain's performance is flawless. She incapsulates the pain, struggle and compromise necessary to do the job she does. The film depicts her as lonely but that never seems to bother her. I think for people who dedicate their lives to such tasks the true loneliness comes after their missions are completed. It was so refreshing to see a film about military conflict highlight a woman, and not in a sexually objectifying way like so many do. My main complaint after The Hurt Locker was that the film had been so male-driven. It's not that I think female filmmakers have to make 'women's' stories, but for a filmmaker as fearless as Bigelow is I was anticipating a film like Zero Dark Thirty.

This film is not for everyone. It's not a feel good, happy Hollywood tale. It's dark and gritty. People get tortured, people die. If you don't mind violent images and Hollywood taking liberties with war history then I highly recommend it. The last 30 minutes of the film are explosive with some of the best action sequences I've seen on screen. Performances are natural and compelling and it wont be a surprise if Chastain takes home an Oscar. The Academy have outdone themselves this year by robbing Bigelow of a Best Director nod in favour of five male directors (Although Ben Affleck is notably missing from the list too). I'm not worried though. As long as Bigelow keeps making films the way she does change is inevitable. She's redefining what it means to be a female in film, perhaps a position she's not comfortable with, but a necessary one nevertheless.